St. Clairsville sails to victory over Wildcats

January 28, 2014

ST. CLAIRSVILLE - During their meeting in Richmond on Dec. 13, St. Clairsville narrowly escaped with a 66-63 victory against Edison.

There was no such drama involved in round two Monday evening.

The Red Devils used a big first-half run and a huge second-half run to post their ninth win in 15 outings by a 69-27 count on John Jenkins Court.

"A lot of things went into this game," said St. Clairsville head coach Kim Clifford. "We had played at an odd time earlier in our schedule, we were able to take away some of the cuts that have been hurting us this season and (offensively) we were able to get the ball into really good positions where guys could do some damage."

After the Wildcats tallied to make it 16-12, the first wave of offensive damage began. St. Clairsville went on a 13-2 run and eventually led 29-17 at the half.

In the third quarter, Edison recorded back-to-back buckets to begin the chapter. From there, the Red Devils scored 15 straight and led 46-25 entering the fourth. It didn't stop there for St. C., which outscored Edison, 22-2 in the fourth.

All told, St. Clairsville went on a 29-5 run to end the game.

Early in the game, it was the work of rugged sophomore Brendan Ferns, who scored 12 of his 16 points in the first half. Later in the game, freshman Michael Scarnecchia caught fire. He scored 17 of his game-high 19 in the second half.

"Once Brendan got going, (Edison) went to help and we had guys hit some shots from the outside," Clifford said.

Clifford was especially pleased with his team's defense and how it adjusted on the fly.

"I thought our guys did a nice job of recognizing what Edison was trying to do and did a good job of taking away those areas," Clifford continued.

St. Clairsville was paced by Ferns and Scarnecchia. Senior Jared Derosa finished with 10 points and Clifford had high praise for the overall floor game turned in by sophomore Daniel Trouten.

The loss drops Edison to 4-10 as the Wildcats' night-and-day play away from Richmond continued. The Wildcats have given almost every team they've hosted all they wanted and then some, but they've not carried that with them on the road.

"I wish I could figure it out," lamented Wildcats' head coach Nate Moses. "We play really well at home, but we go on the road and completely lay an egg like we did tonight.